Late Night (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 21 Nov 2012 @ 3:06pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

4,222 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 2; Captain's Quarters
Timeline: MD 02, 2130 hrs

Previously, on Late Night (Part 1)...

She studied the captain's face, then her hair, neck and shoulders. She was beautiful, she thought. Or was she? Maybe she was under the captain's influence already? Was it attraction, or was it just acknowledgement? You could find someone attractive without being attracted to them, couldn't you? These were the problems that Maenad had to deal with on a regular basis; she asked too many questions, thought way too much, tried to make sense of things that didn't need to made sense of. "That must get frustrating," she said breathily, after several seconds. "How could you ever know who really likes you..." she shook her head. "I'm sorry, I probably sound ridiculous."

A light chuckle escaped the captain's lips. "Well, the ones who like me tend to come back the next day." she answered with a wry grin. "To be honest, I never gave much thought to how I influence people until I settled on Earth. I had an incident with a boy at school when I was finishing high school but aside from that, I can't remember a time when it became a big issue." she added as she pondered her earlier years of life.

It was at that moment when Lirha suddenly remembered a discussion she had recently had with Pola. She almost kicked herself as she realized that she had been prohibited from taking her weekly suppressant until she was fully recovered from her injuries. According to the good doctor, Galileo's medical staff didn't want to risk any complications which might arise with the synthetic compound. But now, with Maenad in her quarters for the evening and in close proximity to her, Lirha suddenly became concerned. Thinking quickly, she slowly rose from the couch and made her way towards her desk. After fumbling around in one of the drawers for a long moment, she returned to her seat and offered Maenad a white pill capsule. "Take one of these, please. It's a pheromone blocker...just in case. I admit, I forgot I was under orders from sickbay not to take my suppressant...something about complications with my recovery. I promise I wasn't trying to seduce you." she said, accompanied by a sheepish and apologetic smile.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

She was was going to ask the captain about this boy from high school; for some reason she had always enjoyed hearing stories of people's childhood and youth, but Saalm abruptly made her way to the other side of the room before she could start encouraging her. Maenad watched her new captain, curious about her sudden hurry. As she rummaged through her desk, Maenad polished off the rest of her drink in one quick gulp - if she were anything, nobody could ever call Maenad a lightweight.

Meanwhile, she was still trying to solve whether this pheromone business was having any effect on her. She doubted it. But when Captain Saalm came back from the desk showing her an open palm with a rather terrifying-looking pill, urging her to take it and insisting that she wasn't trying to seduce her, Maenad's eyes widened.

More than her eyes, her jaw practically hit the floor. Had she really given the impression that she thought the captain was trying to seduce her? "Oh no," was all she choked out. "I didn't..." she stammered. "I mean, I was only curious... I..." Thoroughly humiliated, Maenad was overcome with guilt. Lirha had offered her home and she had to make her feel like this. This was awful.

Maenad held up a single hand to stop her. "I really don't think it's necessary," she insisted. Then, her cheeks rosy, she buried her face in her hands. She didn't want to take the pill simply because she didn't think she could be so effected that she might start leaping and clawing at her poor captain. And, she had an aversion to pills and medicines that she didn't want to get into. She looked up to her captain, "I think I'm fine. Honest," she said it sincerely, but she knew that she would be constantly second-guessing herself. "Tell me about the incident with that boy on Earth," she tried to get off the subject.

"Very well." Lirha replied, somewhat confused as to why her guest had declined the pill. She sincerely hoped that Maenad would not wake up in the middle of the night with a migraine, but figured she could cross that bridge if they came to it. Lirha placed the small pill on the corner of the table and left it there, in case Maenad changed her mind. She also noticed that the science chief appeared flustered, as indicated by her blushing cheeks. Lirha thought it was one of the cuter Human traits, and couldn't help but smile to herself.

"I had a bit of a complication with my last boyfriend a few nights before I went off to the Academy." she began to explain, "He was rather upset that I was leaving to enlist and not pursuing a traditional university degree. At first, I wasn't very aware of what was going on....until he showed up at my house one night and refused to leave. My mother and I tried to explain to him that it was inevitable, me joining Starfleet, but he insisted on staying with me, even volunteered to enlist with me so that we could stay together. I think that was my first warning sign..." she said, then paused to fold her good leg underneath her body and take a final sip of brandy. "Anyway, he became very emotional once I told him to go home. He refused to leave and eventually we had to call city security to remove him from our house. I'll never forget the look on his face the next day at school when he approached me as if he had no idea what had happened."

"Wow," Maenad said with a bit of a smirk. "That's terrible," she looked at her empty glass, considering that maybe this pill was a good idea. But he'd been exposed to her pheromones for quite some time, she reminded herself. Nothing that serious would happen to her for just one night.

"I can't say that I've ever had someone like me so much that I needed security to come pull them off of me," she said it jokingly, but somewhere deep inside she wished that she had. She could never figure out proper relationships, or even how to keep people for very long.

Glancing at her and Maenad's empty glasses, Lirha returned to her feet and gingerly walked back into the kitchen, this time quickly returning with the entire bottle of Saurian brandy. She refilled the snifters and left the bottle on the table, just in case. "You have never had a significant other?" the captain asked curiously as she sat back down and curled her leg back under her. She turned to face Maenad, curious to know about some of her romantic encounters...or lack thereof.

Maenad smiled rather naively. "Thanks," she nodded appreciatively for the refill. It was a tough question; Maenad had had a few fleeting relationships since her youth, only one had ever been what people would have called serious. What she was most embarrassed about, not so much embarrassed but reluctant to talk about, was that she had had no lack of intimacy during her university days.

"Well," she decided that she wanted to tell the captain anyway. Something about her made Maenad open up, which was usually very difficult for her. It could have been the brandy, the pheromones, or some combination of the two. Or, it could have been that Maenad really wanted to tell her; she was still conflicted inside her head as to what was going on inside her, whether she was being influenced by chemical reactions over which she had no control.

"When I was in university, I was very different," she said, looking at the floor several metres away. "Socially, I mean. I was always a bit of an academic, but I dressed differently, drank a lot, smoked a lot," she grinned, looking to the captain, "And not just cigarettes." She crossed her legs and took another drink, thinking that she wanted a cigarette now that she had smoking on her mind. "I was always fighting rules, I did whatever I wanted. I guess I was rebellious, but I really don't like the connotations that brings sometimes." Maenad sighed, still grinning as she looked back at her former self. But then the grin faded into an empty blankness.

"There were people that came into my life and left, none of them having any real meaning. We did things, but there was nothing there. As my final years approached, I started taking things more seriously than before; instead of going to watch some show or going to bed with somebody, I stayed home and studied. Still drinking and smoking, of course, but by myself." She shook her head. "I became very depressed; there was this guy that I liked very much, and we had been together, but at the same time not together at all. He would sleep with all these other girls, these really pretty girls who played in bands and whatnot. You know, really hip. I could only play classical piano and violin; I played the part, but I was never like any of them." It was as though Maenad had entered some sort of trance now, her staring ahead through narrowed eyes not at anything in particular, her vision becoming a blur of memory.

"Well," she continued, "He told me that he loved me because I was smart and that he liked debating with me. He said that he liked watching me read, that he found the idea of me staying home to study more attractive than someone just looking for their next high. One day when it all mattered we would be together, and I believed it." She smiled, showing her awkward teeth. "I don't know when I realised it was all just a lie, but when I did it really hurt. I can't explain it, really." Maenad swirled the glass of brandy in her hand, in one dismissive twirl of her wrist.

"I never felt love like that again, until I started teaching. A colleague of mine took a liking to me, a professor of Earth's Antiquity, Ancient Egypt, but when he went away on research to Giza, he fell in love with this beautiful, unimaginably gorgeous, and incredibly intelligent Egyptian woman. She had bronze skin, straight black hair that went down to her waist. Her eyes were so dark, but so beautiful. I found out when I went to visit him for a week. I thought they were just research partners; I spoke with her every day, and was almost jealous of her myself. She was astonishing." She laughed quietly. "By the end of he week, despite wearing a massive straw sun hat, long sleeves, and layers upon layers of sunblock, I was sunburned and dehydrated. They both came to me and told me that it was over." She took a drink. "At least they were honest about it," Maenad looked up to Lirha again. "What got me was that I thought that finally someone loved me for me. I thought that he thought that I was that goddess, but then for me to learn that he fell for someone so entirely different from me in every single way imaginable, I wondered how real our time together, a little more than a year, had been."

Maenad closed her eyes, the weight of her sob stories crushing her like a falling piano. "I'm sorry, captain. Truly, I am giving you the wrong impression. This is not who I am, I am really not like this. I never tell people these things. I'm not meaning to, I just..." she let out a long sigh through her nose, scolding herself in her head. What was she doing? What had she done. The captain probably thought she was a complete fool.

Lirha smiled and put her hand on Maenad's shoulder, giving it an affectionate squeeze. "It's quite alright, I actually enjoy these conversations." she replied. "They are a welcome break from the monotony of my administrative duties." she explained, then reached down with her other hand and brought her freshly-refilled glass of liquor to her lips. After a lengthy sip which emptied half of the snifter, she set it back down and took a deep breath, feeling the warmth of the alcohol once again warm her body. "I feel terrible that such a think happened to you...you're a very beautiful woman and you will no doubt have other suitors in your life." she said in a soft voice as she looked over the Human's features. Despite the late hour, her black hair seemed neatly kept and Lirha was quite fond of the dark bangs which hid most of her forehead. In addition, she noticed that Maenad had green eyes like herself, a very attractive recessive trait in Humans, the captain thought.

"Do you feel that your personal life has changed since joining Starfleet?" Lirha asked. She let her hand fall off Maenad's shoulder but scooted herself closer to offer her company to the woman.

Glad that Lirha, the captain - she wasn't sure what to call her anymore - was appreciative instead of... weirded out, Maenad gave her an affectionate smile. "It has, but not as much you'd think." She took a drink, thinking how smooth it went down. "When I first left civilian life and started teaching at the Academy, they gave me a provisional rank of lieutenant even though while on active duty, how I did most of my Academy training, I was an ensign. They did that because they wanted a chain of command in the classroom. Apparently being a full lieutenant, even if it were only provisional, meant that I had authority. A lieutenant junior grade wasn't high enough to strike fear into an ensign's heart, I guess, and they certainly weren't going to let an ensign be an instructor, even if I had the qualifications." She rolled her eyes. "So, I found that difficult. I like teaching at the Academy, but don't at the same time for those kinds of reasons."

Returning her gaze to the captain's, she held her green eyes for a moment. Hers were green too, but Maenad's were nothing compared to the captain's. She had never seen such beautiful eyes. Maenad took another drink. "I haven't... been... with anyone since that last man I told you about," she said, "So, my personal life has been quite bland." What was she talking about? She was accustomed to being alone, and thought that she liked it. "I've become used to it; it's not like I sit around crying. I keep myself busy. I play music, write, do my research. I could play for you some time, once I get a piano on board." The liquor was taking down her barriers, she felt, but she was comfortable with it. Her invitation was genuine.

"That sounds fun, I would enjoy that." the captain answered with approval. Like most of her species, she had taken up an interest in arts and entertainment at a young age. Lirha wasn't the best musician herself; she had never been able to hold a tune or quite figure out the working behind various instruments, but she greatly enjoyed listening to music and watching dance and film. "How long have you been playing?" she wondered out loud.

"Since I was little," she replied. "My parents made me do ballet up until I was ten or so. But while I was doing pirouettes I was thinking that I'd rather be the one playing the music everybody was dancing to. So, I started taking lessons when I was... seven or eight. For a while I did both." It had been a few weeks since she had had the chance to play, and she suddenly felt antsy about it. If there were a piano in the room, she would have started playing it right away.

Maenad yawned. "Excuse me," she wiped the water from her eyes. "Do you play anything?"

"Me?" Lirha asked, somewhat incredulously. "Oh...not really. I grew up on a merchant vessel with the rest of my family and I've never shown much of an aptitude for musical instruments. But I do like to dance." she added with a happy grin. To those who were familiar with Orions, it was no secret that the women were usually fond of dancing; in fact, it was one of Lirha's favorite recreational activities when she was back on Earth. Unfortunately, the circumstances and responsibilities of her duties currently prevented her from engaging in such types of leisure, and even if she did have the time, her leg still had a tendency to become painfully sore.

"That's something I was never very good at," Maenad thought aloud. "I can waltz," she laughed, "But that's about it."

She finished her drink and sat back, turning to face the captain who had at some point snuck closer to her, or did she get closer to Lirha? She didn't know. "Thank you, captain," Maenad said hushedly. "For taking me in tonight, supper, warming me up..." Her tone was affectionate and her green eyes shined with appreciation, despite looking like a raccoon's and bloodshot. "I really appreciate it." The past few days had been incredibly stressful on her and this evening was exactly what she had needed for a long time.

"It is my pleasure." Lirha replied, noting the fatigued look on her science officer's face. "It is not often that I get the chance to spend time with my senior officers on such a casual basis." she added, realizing that she had had her head stuck in a pile of PADDs the entire day. Most importantly, however, Lirha actually liked the new science chief. She had the feeling that the two of them would have a very close working relationship in the coming deployments, and she was happy to have broken the ice, so to speak.

Realizing the hour was getting late, the captain let out a sleepy sigh and downed the rest of her drink with a final sip. "I assume that you are ready for bed now?" she asked, rising slowly from the couch and to her feet in order to stretch the muscles in her back.

"I am if you are," Maenad said, hoping that Lirha was. "I'm on your time."

Stifling a yawn, Lirha nodded in reply. She picked up the small pill that was still on the table and slipped it into her pocket, then looked at Maenad for a long moment. She really wished the Human had taken her up on the offer, just in case, but there was no sense in protesting further if she felt uncomfortable with the idea. Everyone reacted differently to her pheromones, and there was a healthy chance that her guest would not feel anything.

Smiling to herself as she pushed the thought from her head, she looked down at Maenad again. She seemed happy and content; at least, more so than she had been when she first arrived in Lirha's ready room. "Yes, I am ready." she confirmed, then reached out with her green hand and gently pushed some of Maenad's dark hair back behind her ear. "My bedroom is down the hallway." she added, then offered her hand for the science chief to take. It was an invitation to stay in her bed for the evening; nothing specifically sexual, but Lirha had had a few drinks and now wanted some more intimate company. "Come." she said softly.

Maenad took Lirha's hand and stood. She pulled on the back of her uniform to straighten it out; she was suddenly very lightheaded, probably from being so tired and sitting for so long. She noticed Lirha had pocketed the pill that she had offered her - should she have taken it? She wasn't sure if she had made right the choice. But what was the right choice, asked herself.

On the table next to where the pill had been, her untouched glass of water from when Lirha had brought her soup was still there. She picked it up and drank it all quickly before setting the glass back down. From behind, Maenad followed the captain to her bedroom. She watched the way she moved her legs, was reminded of the limp, and again she wrestled with the idea of these pheromones.

Wait a minute you are going to her bed? She shouted at herself. The couch was comfortable enough. But the prospect of sleeping in a bed, something she hadn't done for two days, was just too much. She had had opportunities to sleep in people's beds before, but she almost always refused - even when they said that they would take the couch. Why was this any different? It dawned on her that maybe the drive to sleep was what was affecting her so.

With Maenad in tow, Lirha led her into the bedroom and then released her hand. It was a medium-sized room with a large and plush bed in the center, a wall cabinet, and several drawers and shelves lining the wall. A large wall-mounted LCARS screen faced the bed, and right behind the headrest was a large window which looked out over the nighttime surface of Vega IX.

The captain made her way to her closet and peeled her shirt off, revealing an intricate design of Orion script and emblems which were tattooed from her neck all the way down to the small of her back. "Would you like some clothes to sleep in?" she asked Maenad, turning her head to look at the other woman.

Maenad hesitated, not sure if she needed them. She didn't normally wear anything to bed. "No, thanks," she said. She was surprised to see the captain's tattoos; for some reason Maenad didn't imagine Lirha to be the tattoo 'type.' She pulled the top of her uniform off so that she only wore the tunic beneath, then removed her boots and socks, deciding that she could remove the rest if she couldn't sleep. She sat down on the bedside, waiting for Lirha to get in first.

Rummaging through her closet for a brief moment, Lirha finally found a loose gray Starfleet t-shirt and pulled it on over her head as the fabric fell down to her thighs. She promptly removed her pants and tossed them into the laundry bin, then returned to the bed and slipped herself beneath the warm covers. "What is your schedule like tomorrow?" she asked curiously, wondering if Maenad had to be up early in the morning. Lirha had scheduled two debriefings between 0800 and 1000, but looked forward to being able to sleep in past 0600 for a change.

Following Lirha's lead, Maenad got under the covers too. She took off her pants beneath the covers and then her tunic, dropping them on the floor. It was too warm under the blankets for her heavy uniform. "As early as I can, I have to figure out where my quarters are," she sighed, feeling more comfortable. She thought that Lirha's bed was the cosiest bed she had ever slept in, but then again with how tired she was she probably would have thought a mud puddle were comfortable. "Ensign Cho is giving me a report at twelve, and I'm holding a department briefing at fifteen hundred," she stared straight up at the ceiling, laying on her back. "And," her voice sounded unimpressed, "I have a physical at ten."

Letting out a long yawn, Lirha wiggled herself closer to Maenad then leaned over her to set the alarm on her nightstand for 0700. "Computer, lights." she called out when she was finished, then snuggled herself against the tall science chief as the room went dark. "I think your physical will be the least of your worries." she joked in a soft voice as she rested her head against Maenad's shoulder.

Not picking up on the humour, Maenad only frowned. She hated physicals. But she didn't have to think about it for long because she found Lirha nestling up to her, putting her head on her shoulder. Normally that would have bothered her, but now it didn't. She didn't even consider why anymore, as she had previously. Whatever she was feeling, which she found difficult to describe, she hadn't felt in a long time. As if it were completely natural, Maenad used her fingers to gently brush the captain's hair, but it didn't last very long. In the darkness of the room and comfort of the bed, Maenad couldn't keep herself awake - she quickly fell into a silent sleep, her hand still in Lirha's hair.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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